In the Name of Greatness

Our Product Emerges

This week there was a lot of housework done in regards to the product design and components. First, the parts that were ordered(the 1V 500mA and 3V 200mA solar panels), then they arrived and were found to be in working condition. However, after further discussion regarding the electrical aspects of our design, we decided that it would not be the best idea to attempt to create a combination circuit to result in a 3V 700mA circuit. If this circuit was created it would give an amount of power equal to 2.1 Watts at peak efficiency, and would use 4 solar panels. This is simply not enough to charge a phone which requires around 4-5V with 1.0-1.2A. We decided it would be more efficient and less difficult to simply created a 5 solar panel series circuit using only 1V 500mA solar panels. This would result in a 2.5 Watt power output, at peak efficiency, which is equivalent to the specifications of a computers USB charger. Due to this change more 1V 500mA solar panels will need to be ordered and the already acquired 3V 200mA panels will have to be returned. This new circuit will also be tested using a breadboard and researched a little more in order to verify its plausibility.

There is another development that should be noted. It has been decided that having a second internal battery other than the phone's would be an intelligent decision in order to power the phone. By using an battery in between the phone battery and the solar panels we can make sure that the phone is being charged continually and efficiently. Solar panels have varying outputs of energy and this variation could prove difficult for powering the phone. Phone batteries tend to be more intelligent than extra external batteries are, and if the current and voltage are too low the phone will not charge properly. So as a result an external battery will also be purchased and housed in this system. 

Other than the electrical aspects of the project, there have been more subdued changes as well. Most notable of which is the new name for our product: The PhatBak. After some very rough measurements were taken, which will be properly taken when all of the materials are available, we decided that we will need the housing case to be a little thicker for the battery and sliding out solar panels. As a result and with a little bit of humor we decided to name our design the PhatBak! This also brings up the other point that was discussed, which is the fact that we have found a Samsung S6 .stl file, and we plan on modifying it in order for us to house all of our parts and 3D print it. That was pretty much everything that was completed this past week. The next step is ordering the few parts we are lacking and editing the .stl file for the physical case which will be housing the solar panels. Overall the product seems to be gaining traction and we are happy with the changes that we are going to make. The team looks forward to seeing how everything works out!